Philip Hammond has announced that period poverty will be tackled with free products in high schools and unveiled a £3billion Affordable Homes Guarantee scheme in today’s Spring Statement.

The Chancellor announced the plan to deliver 30,000 affordable homes in the ongoing bid to raise “housing supply to levels not seen since 1970” as part of their target to reach 300,000 homes built every year by the mid-2020s.

The new funding will reportedly support the delivery of these affordable homes through the existing guarantee scheme by allowing housing associations to borrow more to build.

A new £3bn Affordable Homes Guarantee scheme, to support delivery of around 30,000 affordable homes…

The other housing announcement was £717 million to unlock 37,000 homes in Oxford and Cambridge as well as west London and Cheshire.

But the reaction to his reveal has been clear from housing organisations – building more social housing is the real key to cracking Britain’s broken housing market.

“We welcome the announcement of a £3bn guarantee scheme, which we called for in the Autumn,” said James Prestwich, head of policy at the National Housing Federation. “It will help housing associations borrow more cheaply and therefore build more homes. However, whilst this is an important contribution, we desperately need new money in the next spending review to build more social housing.

“This is more crucial than ever in the midst of Brexit uncertainty – the lack of affordable housing is now pushing hundreds of thousands of working families to the brink– the number is rising year on year, many are living in debt, at threat of eviction or homeless.”

DID YOU KNOW…

In total, more than 92,000 people have sold The Big Issue since 1991 to help themselves work their way out of poverty – more than could fit into Wembley Stadium.

Hammond cut growth expectations for this year, down to 1.2 per cent from the 1.6 per cent that he predicted in October. But despite the ongoing uncertainty over Brexit, Hammond was bullish over next year’s forecast, which remains at 1.4 per cent, before increasing to 1.6 per cent for the following three years.

Borrowing figures, on the other hand, will be 1.1 per cent of GDP this year, representing £3bn less than October’s forecast.

The mounting fears around knife crime saw the Chancellor pledge £100m to police forces to tackle the issue.

Hammond also revealed that the government will fund period poverty products to be placed into secondary schools and colleges from the next school year.

Phillip Hammond says govt will guarantee 30,000 new affordable homes. Leaving aside the question of whether they'll be affordable (not really), it's a drop in the ocean of what's needed. Last year 57,890 households were accepted as homeless in England alone #SpringStatement2019

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) both lashed out in the wake of the announcement, slamming the decision to not to scrap the freeze a year before it is due to end in 2020.

“Today, the Chancellor could have sent a lifeline to low-income families,” said chief executive of CPAG Alison Garnham.

“That he didn’t is evidence of ministers’ refusal to confront the reality that families have been left with too little money to live on after three long years of stagnant incomes and rising prices. Funding sanitary products for girls in schools may help with one small area of expenditure, but this will have a minimal impact on poverty overall. It leaves in tatters the prime minister’s claim that austerity is over.”

Chancellor warns of possible impact of Brexit on prices, but fails to #EndTheFreeze on benefits and tax credits. People are already struggling with rising costs and being swept into poverty even before any (further) impact of Brexit on prices #SpringStatement2019